Supporting data-driven district-level multi-sectoral nutrition sensitization: Insights from three states in India
Abhilasha Vaid1, Shruthi Cyriac2, Suman Chakrabarti1, Srabashi Ray3, Parul Tyagi1, Purnima Menon4
1Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), New Delhi, India; 2St John’s Research Institute, Bengaluru; 3Oregon State University, Corvallis; 4IFPRI, Washington DC, USA
SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS
BACKGROUND
METHODS
RESULTS
OBJECTIVES
India, which carries the highest burden of global
undernutrition, has a decentralized governance
landscape that requires district-level coordination and
multi-sectoral actions to deliver on nutrition.
Little is known, however, about how to motivate and
support district leadership and other actors for
strengthening delivery of various government programs to
close gaps in the immediate and underlying determinants
of nutrition in a data-driven and evidence-based manner.
To compile, synthesize, and harmonize fragmented data
from various publicly available sources in the form of a
compact District Nutrition Profile (DNP).
To test the use of the data profiles to sensitize district-
level nutrition actors to the problem of nutrition, the role of
multiple determinants of high levels of undernutrition and
to identify local actions to address nutrition.
We compiled a set of district-level indicators on the state
of nutrition and its multiple determinants in the form of a
user-friendly infographic, the DNP.
Indicators were grouped using the UNICEF conceptual
framework for nutrition, which lays out the causes of
undernutrition at three levels─ immediate, underlying, and
basic.
Data from diverse national, state and district level
surveys, were used to compile a set of indicators on the
state of nutrition and its cross-sectoral determinants.
DNPs were used by civil society organizations (CSOs) in
nine districts of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Madhya
Pradesh at district-level nutrition-sensitization
workshops. We assessed the utility of this through
learning sessions with CSOs and analysis of district
workshop documentations.
The DNPs were routinely updated after incorporating
suggestions after stakeholder discussions at the district-
level and whenever new data sources were publicly
available.
A SAMPLE DNP (GAYA, BIHAR)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONTACT INFORMATION
POSHAN partners Vatsalya, Vikas Samvad and
the Public Health Resource Network (PHRN) for
their inputs.
Financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation
Abhilasha Vaid ([email protected]),
Communications Specialist, Poverty, Health and
Nutrition Division, IFPRI
Purnima Menon ([email protected]), Senior
Research Fellow, Poverty, Health and Nutrition
Division, IFPRI
It was feasible to package data at the district-level despite
significant data gaps.
The DNP proved to be useful in identifying nutrition-
related challenges at the district-level and helped district
administrators to engage with complex data, which are
otherwise challenging to interpret or are unused.
Knowledge mobilization partners in the states of Uttar
Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are using
DNPs to convene nutrition conversations at the district-
level.
The DNPs, linked with meaningful facilitated dialogue, are
helping to raise awareness among district actors about
the role of different sectors.
Critical challenges lie ahead in data
representativeness, timeliness and in moving from
awareness to action in a multisectoral framework.
Despite large gaps in the availability of consistently
collected district-level data, synthesized and visually
appealing data profiles are a high-potential tool for
engaging local policy actors in data-driven dialogues
that help demystify multisectoral actions for nutrition.
There is a need for investments in routinely conducted
comprehensive, consistent and representative surveys
on nutrition and to invest further in facilitating the use of
data in local planning for effective decentralized
decisions about nutrition in India and other countries.